Musings of an antipodean contrarian

Tony Abbott’s moral compass

As 2011 gets off to a good start, things are predictably quiet on the political front, so let me ask you: What do we know about federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s moral compass?

We know a fair bit – perhaps too much – about Kevin Rudd’s religious perspective, and we know where Julia Gillard stands, or doesn’t stand, with respect to morality and spirituality. What of Prime Ministerial hopeful Tony Abbott?

Well, he is a practicing Catholic, and there’s that much publicised Jesuit training for the priesthood, but as Mr Abbot himself would tell you, he’s not the ideal example of a person of faith.

Recently Neil Ormerod, professor of theology at the Australian Catholic University, suggested that Tony Abbott shared more in common with the infamous pragmatist Niccolo Machiavelli than with the Catholic Church.

It has been said that a politician’s best refuge is a vague faith strongly held, or a strong faith vaguely held. What we need is more political leaders who possess a strong faith strongly held. And that goes for Macquarie Street as well as for Canberra.